Kev gives us an inside look at his process, creative flow, and thoughts around working with royalty-free samples in his production. Gems are definitely dropped so pay attention. He demonstrates the versatility and uniqueness of the The Soulful Stems and how they can be used in modern production. Enjoy!

With festival season just around the corner, it’s the perfect chance to get your band out there and your music heard. This does not in any way, shape or form mean that you should spam the inboxes of festival owners with delusional begging and ‘offering’ your band out for the main stage!

Rather on a more practical level, it’s a time to take advantage of the situation and increase your fan base and network. Whilst the temptation can be strong to get wasted with a bunch of your closest pals and a few random strangers thrown in for good measure, it’s one you should resist (for the most part) After all, where better to meet your potential new fans than at an entire venue or site filled with people who love music?!

Stand Out

Whether you organize a flash mob, co-ordinate some ridiculous outfits, or hire some models to wear your merch, going out to a festival doesn’t just have to be treated as a social call. Although the above ideas are a little extreme (and potentially outdated, in the case of flash mobs!) there are a few far more simple things you can try to get your name out there! On the spot performances are a good idea – show people what you’ve got. A little campfire acoustic set never hurt anyone, and you’ll be bound to impress!

Hand Things Out

When you’ve got people hooked, it’s important that you do something to retain their attention. Handing out freebies is always a good option. Flyering can help, but don’t be too disheartened if you see your own face staring up at you numerous times from puddles. People are drunk, people already have limited space, and your flyer ends up chucked anywhere and everywhere. Things like sweets go down well, but if you’re looking for something branded to make you stand out, you have a few options! Why not try something that actually helps you stay fresh in their minds? If you want people to hear your music, shouting a Facebook URL at them might not be so memorable. USB Makers, on the other hand, allow you to put your music in one place for them to take home and hear when they’ve recovered from their crazy weekend. Handing these out to people who want to feel important could mean you’ve really hit the jackpot – they look too expensive to break, like with a big, inconvenient CD, so there’s more chance they’ll actually keep it. Thankfully though, if you buy in bulk, they’re not all that expensive at all. The alternative is to pop your music onto a Card USB – they’re quirky, they’re shaped like cards for your wallet, but they may hold the key to your success.

Do Things ‘The American Way’

It’s a pretty American thing, but with such a big country, you need to do literally everything you can in order to be memorable – including walking around with a pair of headphones attached to your chosen device, in order to let people listen to your stuff. You can replicate this wherever you are though, as people will definitely appreciate the personal touch. Be smart – pick the best tracks for this, and choose times that work, not just for you, but for the people you want to hear you. Just because you don’t care about the band on the main stage at 3pm, doesn’t mean people who may have travelled to see only them will appreciate you interrupting to hear your band’s tracks. Wait until people are in line – whether it’s for food, to get in, merch or the oh-so-dubious bathrooms, and the distraction will come as a welcome relief.

Network

This doesn’t need to mean schmoozing… think more like boozing. Sort of. Whilst it’s not a good idea in the slightest to make a fool of yourself and get drunk, making friends with like-minded individuals will win you a few fans – on a band level, too. If people like you, they’re more likely to give you a chance. Keep an eye out for name droppers. They love to brag at these kind of gatherings, and this could work in your favour. Getting connections can equal exposure. From clothing lines like Big Deal Clothing and Fatal Clothing, to girls claiming that they’re dating someone who writes for Kerrang!, if someone has a connection to someone who can have an influence on your music career, there’s definitely no shame in trying to benefit from that.

Have Manners

No matter what method you choose in approaching people, remember to always have manners. It sounds like something you’d hear at school, but they had a point. The old saying ‘any publicity is good publicity’ might not be so true in an industry where people are increasingly having to work harder to be noticed. People are far more likely to remember and tell their friends about rudeness, so unless you can get away with a little bit of cheeky charm, remember that a bad reputation before you’ve even had chance to earn a good one could really harm your chances of success.

Just in case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, the AFB team is hear with a wake up call about how musicians get paid in the music industry. With the emergence of digital music royalties as an even bigger part of songwriter compensation, the Songwriter Equity Act seeks to level the playing field for songwriters, composers and publishers seeking fair compensation for their work. The new legislation is a bipartisan bill intended to amend two outdated portions of the U.S. Copyright Act. This amendment would allow a “rate court” to consider other royalty rates as evidence when establishing digital performance rates for songwriters and composers, and it would adapt a fair rate standard for reproduction (mechanical licenses).

If passed the songwriter equity act could have dynamic implications across the industry. The AFB team and the rest of music world will be closely watching this bill’s progress. For more information and details about the Songwriter Equity Act, visit ASCAP’s website.

Social media is 24/7. Someone is always tweeting, posting on Facebook, or uploading a new picture to instagram. However, for social media managers and businesses alike, this can be quite of a challenge. We obviously can’t be online all day, even for those of us who are social media managers or strategist. But how do you know when to best reach your audience? There are a couple different ways to determine when your audience is online:

Good Ol’Trial and Error

By tweeting or posting using a link shortener, such as ow.ly or bit.ly, enables you to track how many times someone clicks on a link you shared. You would also want to keep records of when you shared a message and on what network to determine how many interactions each message received. This will allow you to determine not only the best times to post but also where your most engaged audience is located. While this is a straight forward method, there has to be an easier way, right?

Social Media Tools

There are many great social media monitoring and reporting tools out there, but one of my favorite is SocialBro. SocialBro is one of my favorite tools because it provides daily reports on the best time to tweet. These reports show the days and times when the greatest percentage of our twitter community is online (not just your followers). Another tool you can use is Hootsuite‘s AutoScheduling functionality which schedules your messages at the best times to reach your audience.

For posting on Google+, Timing+ is a very valuable tool. Timing + analyzes your historical post data to determine what time of day has the most potential for your posts to have the greatest impact. There are so many great tools out there it would be hard to name them all. If you have a favorite tool please leave a comment below, I would love to hear about it!

Learning from the Research of Others

The best times to post on social media is definitely a hot topic and has resulted in a lot of fantastic research. Luckily, the infographic below examines some of that research and breaks down the best and worst times to post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. To maximize your reach, it recommends that you focuse on posting during the following times:

Facebook – between 10 am and 4pm Monday thru Thursday.

Twitter – between 1pm and 3pm Monday thru Thursday.

LinkedIn – focus on posting before and after business hours, 7 am to 9 am and 5pm to 6pm Tuesday thru Thursday.

Google+ – 9am to 11am on workdays.

Pinterest – This is the one social network you should focus on posting during weekday evenings and on the weekends. specifically 2pm to 4pm and 8pm to 1am on weekdays. The best time to pin items on Pinterest is on Saturday morning.

While this infographic will give you a great base to build from, it is definitely not the answer for every business. When determining when to post on social media make sure to consider your customers, your product or service, and the types of messages you are posting. For example, the ideal time for a local bakery to post on Facebook is most likely very different than that of a national brand. In addition, if the majority of your customers live on the east coast and your company is based on west coast, you will want to post on LinkedIn before and after their workday, not yours.

Back by popular demand, MSXII is extremely proud to release The Synth Immaculate 2! True to it’s roots, The Synth Immaculate 2 boast an incredible canvas of analog + (digital bonus) goodness! If you’ve wondered why your software just can’t get you that grit from synths, it’s because it’s not the real thing. All pros know why there simply is no replacement for the vintage analog pieces of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We’ve taken the time to hand select samples from our favorite pieces such as the Prophet T8, Prophet VS, Sequential Circuits Six Trak, + more and brought it to your sample environment. This kit, along with the original Synth Immaculate, is designed for the tweaker. If you love importing sounds, manipulating them, and turning them into your own masterpieces, then this kit is for you!